How to get the best results on LinkedIn

Posted on February 26th, 2018,
by Mary Finucane

For any small business wanting to grow via networking, referrals and mentor-ship, LinkedIn and LinkedIn content is key. As a communication tool, LinkedIn can be very effective. Use it to celebrate the successes of your business, share news that your followers might find interesting, and educate the industry about critical issues that might affect their business.

LinkedIn is a business medium and therefore any content you publish should be appropriate for this audience and using the right tone of voice, especially when you’re looking to engage with senior people, otherwise it can be detrimental to how people view your organisation.

Stay active

LinkedIn provides an easy way to steadily build brand awareness and engage with customers, suppliers and employees. What separates an optimised profile from the average account is the amount of activity it has. We’ve put together a short guide on how to get the best results for your LinkedIn content so that you reach more people and generate more leads for your company.

Write often

Talk about what you’re working on and who you’re working for. Include regular company updates that would be of interest to your target customers and clients. Focus on how what you’re doing can help others achieve their goals. LinkedIn advises you to “create a content map and build trust”. Us it to move potential customers through the funnel stages, from awareness to consideration to acquisition, and tailor your content and updates accordingly.

Pick an engaging topic

Unsurprisingly, topics that drive engagement on LinkedIn include industry trends/news and leadership. Your goal is to establish yourself as an authority in your industry to gain followers and generate leads. So write about what you know! Your customers ask you questions all the time, so address those questions in your articles. And ensure you use an attention-grabbing headline. Numbers, lists, tips, and action words are the best way to draw in the reader.

Publishing on LinkedIn is similar to guest blogging and you can use it to reach a huge audience – LinkedIn has 467 million members. While publishing an article doesn’t mean you’re a LinkedIn Influencer, it does allow you to further establish your professional identity by expressing your opinions and sharing your experiences.

A handy tool to gain further insight into queries on a particular topic is Answer The Public. If you study what is being searched for, you can generate content that’s valuable and relevant to your audience. This will help with content visibility.

If writing is not your superpower, employ a copywriter specialising in content marketing to help you create some highly valuable content.

Use great images and videos

LinkedIn found that “images generally result in a 98% higher comment rate” and “links to YouTube videos play directly in the LinkedIn feed and usually result in a 75% higher share rate”. This means that if you have high-quality photos and engaging infographics, you’re more likely to get people into your article, and maybe even get them to follow you, ensuring they’ll be around for the next post. Here are some memorable LinkedIn articles from 2017.

Respond to comments

Once you’ve published your LinkedIn content, make sure you keep track of it. When you get comments, respond to them. This is one of the best ways to expand your network and potentially generate more leads, because commenters are people who are genuinely interested in your product and what you have to say. Respond to them in order to make those connections.

Participate in groups

Join groups related to your business and your interests. Participation in discussions can help establish you as an expert in your field. It’s important that you don’t spam or always talk about your business. Send messages and invitations to those in your network and to other group members. Your goal is to create professional connections that are mutually beneficial to you and the other person.

Tweet tip

When you have published your piece, tip off editors via Twitter by tagging the handle @LinkedInEditors. If you tell them why your post is feature-worthy, they might consider it. If they do feature it, you’re likely to get a lot of views.

Check analytics

Use the analytics for your company page to identify top posts, such as those with the highest impressions, clicks, or engagement rate, and figure out what resonates with your followers. You can then create similar posts or re-post those top posts a few weeks later.

If you would like to optimise your LinkedIn profile and maximise your LinkedIn content, we can handle both the management of your content marketing and social media. Contact us at Cariad to find out more.